12 WAYS TO DESIGN A LOW COST SCADA SYSTEM THINGS YOU CAN DO AS AN OWNER/ENGINEER TO MAKE LOW COST SCADA A REALITY.

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1 12 WAYS TO DESIGN A LOW COST SCADA SYSTEM THINGS YOU CAN DO AS AN OWNER/ENGINEER TO MAKE LOW COST SCADA A REALITY. - A PUBLICATION OF AFFINITY ENERGY -

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Intro Know the ultimate vision for your facility Specify early and in detail Say no to overspecification Specify equipment with HMI web capability Realize limitations of some integrators Don t assume built-in features are low cost Minimize APIs, gateways, and protocols Match SCADA solutions with suppliers Use object-based design Only map certain points Keep your hands from getting tied Bring system integrators in earlier Conclusion

3 INTRODUCTION

4 WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT FROM THIS EBOOK Almost everything that makes SCADA expensive boils down to customers not knowing what to ask for during SCADA specification. There are plenty of things besides the hard cost (materials and SCADA software) that affect your ability to get low cost SCADA. And they re all things you can tackle ahead of time with some careful research and decision-making. This ebook is a cheat sheet of things to think about and decide on before you talk to your systems integrator, to ultimately make SCADA a little more economical.

5 CHAPTER ONE KNOW THE ULTIMATE VISION FOR YOUR FACILITY

6 WHAT S YOUR VISION? It may seem obvious, but you ve got to begin with the end in mind. You want to have as much influence as possible in the beginning, because once things are started, it s extremely hard (or expensive) to change course. Your level of influence is highest at the very beginning. You are in the driver s seat. You have the greatest ability to change what your suppliers provide prior to contracts being approved. You can influence your equipment suppliers or partners choice of PLC or SCADA system. You can also influence the choice of network hardware. Hint: Ethernet or fiber make connectivity easier and integration cheaper. It all starts with a plan. You don t necessarily need to know every detail about your future SCADA system, but you need to be able to outline your ultimate vision for your facility and the various systems that support it. NEED HELP DESIGNING A LOW COST SCADA SYSTEM?

7 CHAPTER TWO SPECIFY EARLY AND IN DETAIL

8 HOW DETAILED IS YOUR SPECIFICATION? As an integrator, the specification is our Bible. We re always on the hook to provide what s in the spec. That s why the more detail you can provide in your specification, the better. One of the most expensive parts of many SCADA integration projects are change orders. The reason change orders exist is because the customer/owner/engineer didn t provide enough detail up front, or didn t outline assumptions clearly. I can t tell you how many times I ve heard, I really wish you would have provided Brand X PLCs instead of Brand Y PLCs Instead of specifying the brand they want in the beginning, owners end up paying for us to rip out what they failed to detail, and start over. Or they live with what they have, but end up paying more for integration down the road. I m not saying you can t make minor changes along the way, but big changes can end up nearly doubling original costs.

9 CHAPTER THREE SAY NO TO OVERSPECIFICATION

10 DO YOUR ENGINEERS CUT & PASTE? We live in a cut-and-paste world. Unfortunately, we find there s a tendency for engineers to use cut-and-paste or boiler plate specifications. This can end up costing the owner more for features he isn t planning on using in his facility. To save time, engineers may cut and paste a 10-page SCADA OEM data sheet that lists 20 different system features. Even if the facility only needs four of the 20 features, the owner ends up paying for all 20 because the engineer is too lazy to write up the specification himself. Or he s too busy to talk to the owner to dig deep and find what makes sense in their individual environment. Further, cut-and-paste features may force you into a particular platform that costs more than another vendor s solution that would more than meet project needs.

11 Key to a low cost SCADA system, is tailoring a specification in terms of what you need to operate your facility. Specify only the functions absolutely required. Make sure you review specifications, preliminary submittals, and data sheets. You need to understand what you re paying for. If you see something in there that doesn t quite fit, question your integrator and engineer. The good integrators work with you ahead of time to ensure they adapt the specification to your unique and individual facility needs. They may even question your specification when something seems out of place or unnecessary, helping you achieve that low cost SCADA solution.

12 CHAPTER FOUR SPECIFY EQUIPMENT WITH HMI WEB CAPABILITY

13 CAN YOU ACCESS YOUR HMI ONLINE? One of the biggest concerns in smaller projects is effort duplication, which represents significant cost. If the OEM already developed graphics on my local control panel/hmi/oit/smart display for a piece of equipment, why should I pay additional cost for a system integrator to duplicate those same graphics in SCADA? Other than having an overall SCADA system with one consistent look and feel, some believe there s no benefit. Luckily, there s a way to avoid graphic duplication. If the local HMI is built with the ability to view it in a web browser, a system integrator should be able to host that HMI within a frame inside a web-based SCADA system. This completely avoids duplication and lowers development costs.

14 There is a tradeoff, however. Graphical consistency within the SCADA system can t really exist, because you re encapsulating multiple OEM graphics into one system. On top of that, the system integrator will design brand new graphics for devices that don t come with built-in HMIs. Here s how you get a good tradeoff between the two: The system integrator graphically designs a high-level view of the system (e.g., the overall P&ID). The SCADA system can talk to device controls and only extract points that need to be alarmed and trended on for that overview screen. When the user needs to drill down into the details, the system brings up existing OEM HMI frames. This maintains an overall common look with consistent trending and alarming, without spending time duplicating graphics. Moral of the story is, it helps to mention if HMI technology from your equipment is web-based in your specification.

15 CHAPTER FIVE REALIZE SOME INTEGRATORS MIGHT NOT HAVE YOUR BEST INTERESTS AT HEART

16 DOES YOUR INTEGRATOR QUESTION THE SPECIFICATION? You won t always deal with system integrators who question your specification. Especially if it means reducing the scope of supply (aka, their revenue stream). Unfortunately, integrators who aren t motivated to provide you the best system are out there. If an engineer specifies 10 items, some integrators provide 10 items without question even if it s obvious the customer doesn t need them. After all, the more he integrates, the more revenue lands in his pocket. At Affinity Energy, we view our projects as long term partnerships. Sometimes, providing the best value to customers means we reduce the scope of what we could potentially provide. But the long-term benefit is a more cost-effective project. A closely-tailored project goes a long way toward building future trust.

17 CHAPTER SIX DON T ASSUME BUILT-IN FEATURES PROVIDE THE LOWEST COST

18 DO YOU PURCHASE ADD-ONS FROM YOUR SCADA VENDOR? Some SCADA software is priced modularly. A few classic examples are reporting, alarm notification, and historian modules. Often, the assumption is made that if you re already buying a SCADA system from a SCADA vendor, it s cheaper to also purchase all add-ons from the same vendor. Actually, some SCADA vendors don t offer economic modules. In fact, they may be extremely poor quality and run with limited functionality. Some providers realize their own reporting, historian, and notification software is so bad, they drop support. The good news is, there are plenty of widely supported, cost-effective solutions that don t come from the OEM. Canary Labs Data Historian talks to SCADA systems using common APIs. For reporting, many integrators use Dream Report. For alarming, we recommend WIN-911.

19 CHAPTER SEVEN MINIMIZE APIs, GATEWAYS, & PROTOCOLS

20 DO YOU USE MULTIPLE PROTOCOLS? APIs, gateways, and protocols all introduce new costs to the SCADA project you may not have thought about. First of all, do yourself a favor and move away from serial protocols. As an outdated technology, serial protocols require a gateway device in order to bring devices onto a common SCADA backbone. Gateway devices become just another line item on a bill of materials that increases cost to a SCADA project. Secondly, the more protocol complexity you introduce into the system, the higher integration costs will be for field startup and verification. HOW LONG DOES SCADA INTEGRATION TAKE?

21 Nowadays, there are probably a dozen open protocols in the industry. Some SCADA manufacturers give you all protocols, and some require you to purchase each protocol as an add-on. Protocols also require drivers, yet another cost. The fewer number of communications protocols you base your system on, the lower your cost should be. Make sure when you write your SCADA specification, you specify the APIs required to talk to your existing equipment. If you want a Wonderware SCADA system to talk to your currently existing SAP work order management system, what protocols will they use to exchange information between the systems? ODBC? XML/web services? Knowing this upfront will help integrators estimate the correct number of labor hours it will take to get those devices talking. NEED HELP DESIGNING A LOW COST SCADA SYSTEM?

22 CHAPTER EIGHT MATCH SCADA SOLUTIONS WITH SUPPLIERS

23 DO YOU HAVE DEVICES WITH BUILT-IN SCADA? Large devices you purchase for your project might already have a mini-scada system built in. Although this seems like an advantage, it can actually represent additional cost if the SCADA system doesn t match the overarching SCADA system you specify. To maintain low cost SCADA you have two choices, either get suppliers to use the same SCADA solution as yours, or rethink the SCADA system you want to use. This scenario recently came up on a biogas project. One part of the biogas plant is a small gas refinery. Cleaning up gas before it s put into the pipeline, the refinery is one small process within the overall biogas plant. The gas refinery supplier provides a Citect SCADA system with their product.

24 Because the rest of the processes throughout the plant do not come with a SCADA system (pumps, dryers, mixing stations, etc.), the owner specified an overarching Trihedral SCADA system. He wanted a single pane of glass, one view into the whole biogas process. Luckily for us, Citect and Trihedral both support OPC communications. Our ability to exchange information back and forth between the refinery and enterprise SCADA system was easily doable. We were fortunate. Unfortunately for many projects, this scenario could have played out quite differently. The owner had already committed to the gas refinery supplier. If the supplier s provided SCADA system hadn t been able to talk to Trihedral, there would have been an additional expense to figure out how to connect the systems together.

25 CHAPTER NINE USE OBJECT- ORIENTED DESIGN

26 DO YOU PLAN ON EXPANDING YOUR FACILITY? You can avoid reinventing the wheel by ensuring your integrator designs your SCADA system with object-based design. Object-based design is based on reusable templates. Using one common language, similar equipment, and standard layouts, integration is broken into smaller, easilymanaged blocks quickly and cheaply added through a cookie-cutter approach.

27 By making and cloning a template for each device, (e.g., meters, generators, UPS, controllers, CAHUs, pumps, etc.) only minor changes are required to accommodate changes between actual devices. By using a templated approach, standardizing a function across an environment becomes extremely simple. Object oriented design is also an obvious choice for scalability reasons. In the future, if you were to build another facility, expand your current facility, or build a similar process, you wouldn t pay for non-recurring engineering. You already made that investment with object-oriented design. All you d have to pay for is the actual deployment of templates you had developed in past projects.

28 CHAPTER TEN ONLY MAP POINTS YOU RE ALARMING, TRENDING, OR REPORTING ON

29 ARE YOU PAYING FOR EXTRA POINTS YOU DON T NEED? The number of points greatly influences if the system will be a high or low cost SCADA system. Unlike you might believe, not all data points need to or should be part of your SCADA system. A meter, for example, measures phase currents, phase voltages, and harmonics. These are crucial values to consider when troubleshooting, but on a daily O&M basis they provide no value. Instead, those data points should be accessed on demand using the meter or the device s proprietary software when necessary. Some instruments and devices (specifically metering, protective relays, and intelligent electronic devices) come ready to integrate with a significant amount of points. However, not all points are important to each owner. It s all about what information you need to run your facility.

30 Our experience has shown that when we turn systems over to owners, the owners use far fewer points than engineers specify. We see too many cases where engineers haven t spent enough time with the owner, and overspecify the points list. Their CYA approach comes with a cost. Remember: capture only the points required to operate and maintain your individual facility. 10 REASONS TO UPGRADE YOUR SCADA SYSTEM

31 CHAPTER ELEVEN KEEP YOUR HANDS FROM GETTING TIED

32 ARE YOUR SYSTEMS PROPRIETARY OR OPEN? When determining how to get the best bang for your buck, you ll not only want to anticipate current needs, but future ones as well. Initial choices you make now can actually make the price go up exponentially in the future if you plan on expanding. Often, if you spent a little extra money up front, you save tens of thousands in the long run. One of those choices is ensuring you own the intellectual property you re paying the systems integrator to develop. Some integrators like to hold customers hostage with proprietary systems and software. If the customer wants to make adjustments in the future, it ensures only that particular integrator can do the work. At Affinity Energy, we turn over all aspects of SCADA systems we provide. Our customers have the ability to reuse what s in their SCADA application, build upon, enhance, and share what they ve purchased. Even if they choose a different integrator, or decide to work on it themselves.

33 CHAPTER TWELVE BRING SYSTEM INTEGRATORS INTO THE DESIGN PROCESS EARLIER

34 WHEN DO YOU BRING IN A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR? SCADA is viewed as supervisory. After all, the acronym is Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. Because a good SCADA system should never be in the critical path of controls, most engineers and owners don t think it s important for systems integrators to be involved early on in the design process. Therefore, SCADA doesn t get as much attention on the front end. Often the process goes like this: The owner has a scheduling meeting with the general contractor The general contractor then passes that information to the electrical contractor The electrical contractor passes that information to the integrator NEED HELP DESIGNING A LOW COST SCADA SYSTEM?

35 Not only is important information easily lost or miscommunicated down the line, but the longer you wait before engaging a system integrator, the more things will be set in stone. Workarounds or backtracks to complete the project the way it was specified racks up additional labor costs. Owners and engineers who aren t familiar with specifying and designing SCADA will always benefit from bringing system integrators into the design process earlier.

36 CONCLUSION

37 LOW COST SCADA IS POSSIBLE The obvious trend threading through this list is the industry tendency to overspecify. Whether through greed, poor attention to detail, or sheer ignorance, it s costing the end-user. In the perfect world, you should be able to trust your system integrator to walk you through the best ways to cut costs. By taking the time to understand exactly what you re paying for, asking the right questions, and being skeptical of cut-and-paste engineers, you should be able to find the right balance between low cost SCADA and helpful facility data analysis.

38 NEED HELP DESIGNING A LOW COST SCADA SYSTEM? The information in this ebook isn t conjecture. It s based off the 800 controls projects we ve completed over the past 15 years. GET A NO OBLIGATION CONSULTATION